The MS Optical lens Super Triplet Perar 4/28 continues to be popular, in fact so popular that the complete batch of 28mm Perar is close to being sold out and there are currently no plans for another production run.

We have a limited supply of both lenses, to be considered “final stocks” for the above reasons.

For a limited period we are in the privileged position to be able to offer either lens with EU shipping at a small additional cost, therefore bypassing any customs obligations. Please select the EU shipping option when ordering.

At the risk of overusing the word limited in this post, the above photo shows the silver version of the 35mm Super Triplet, originally only available in Hong Kong. Only two lenses are available. SOLD OUT

Lastly, a new lens by Mr Miyazaki is on the horizon, the MS Optical 50/1.13 Sonnetar. The lens offers a very wide aperture and is a Sonnar design. Ten copies will be assembled in early September and details published at that time. These are not prototypes, and to use Mr Miyazaki’s own words “I do not make enough mistakes to justify building that many prototypes” — these are full production spec lenses. After that more lenses are made to produce 300 in total. The lens will be available via various outlets and is priced at Y109.000. We are aiming to offer a EU shipping option for this lens as we are doing for the Perars. More info on this item will follow shortly.

UPDATE2: buyers in Hong Kong can buy this lens at Leitzian Limited in Tsim Sha Tsui. Ming Wong will have priority stock and in the beautiful store you can try before buy, and of course meet other Leica people.

The 28mm Perar is seeing very good uptake and we are getting a lot of positive feedback on it. We had expected that the demand will outpace the rate of production, but in this case a shortage of iris diaphragms used for the lens’ aperture has caused a temporary hold on production. New apertures are being manufactured by a supplier and should ship from Germany to Japan later this week to let lens assembly continue so we can resume shipping our numerous pending orders. Thank you for your patience around this.

We are also seeing strong interest in the Kenko 19mm Skylight and UV filters. Unfortunately it seems that Kenko have decided to no longer produce them, so our stocks are limited. We are giving full priority to customers purchasing Perar lenses from us and hope to supply everyone with a filter who wishes to have one. If you are not purchasing a Perar lens and wanted to order the filter, we are sorry for possibly having to turn you down.

Lastly, the Super Triplet Perar 35/3.5 is continuing to attract interest from photographers to the extent that MS Optical have decided a fourth production batch of 100 lenses of the 35mm lenses. Thanks to the success of these items, we are in a position to be able to extend the production run in even relatively small quantities to ensure continued supply. I want to reemphasize that the lot quantities were never intended to imply artificial scarcity or produce a Limited Edition item at any point in time. Since nobody can foresee the uptake of such a lens and capital expenditure is an issue, the best approach is to adjust production to demand and expand as needed.

I hope this update is of use and we appreciate you spreading the word and keep generating interest in the fabulous lenses. We have customer feedback that is very explicit about how the Perar lenses has helped them achieving their photographic objective, for example by minimising gear or simply become less noticed by their subjects. We are delighted in hearing such positive reports.

The lens is available for pre-order now in our web shop. Orders will be served in the order received. Please note that as usual there might be a waiting period between receiving your order and fulfilment, due to the nature of the lens.

Japan Exposures has over six years of experience of selling MS Optical products, including several hundred of Super Triplets 35mm. This includes efficient and cost-effective shipping, handling of after-sale warranty & repairs and even intra-EU shipping to save on import duty. Thank you for your continued support.

The simplest optical design that is capable of correcting all of the seven Seidel aberrations over a wide field of view is the Cooke triplet, developed by H. Dennis Taylor in 1893. It is named after the optical company in York, England, for which Taylor worked at the time, Cooke and Sons (later to become Cooke, Troughton and Sims). Taylor’s designs, despite their antiquity, are close to optimum for the aperture and field he intended, given the glass types available in his day.

However, at around 1925 with the rise of the Tessar lens designed by Paul Rudolph of Zeiss the Cooke triplet was starting to be relegated to cheaper lenses such as those in compact cameras, due to its simple design affording low cost manufacturing.

Mr Miyazaki of MS Optical, a small independent manufacturer of lenses and camera accessories, believes that a well-designed triplet is superior to the Tessar. Only very few lenses in history exploited the full power of the formula, such as an early version of the Leitz Elmar 90/4 with three elements. He started researching and designing his own ideal triplet lens at the highest level possible, using 21st century materials and manufacturing techniques. The result is the MS Super Triplet Perar 4/28, which has just been released. (For those wondering about the origin of the lens name, in Japanese pera-pera means thin or flimsy.)

Despite it’s deceptively simple construction of three lens elements Miyazaki was able to design a lens of not only outstanding performance, but also with a very interesting form factor and at comparatively low cost.

Just like MS Optical’s lens conversions, please be aware that this lens is slightly different in operation from “normal” mass-manufactured lenses. For example, the aperture scale rotates with the whole lens barrel when the lens is focussed and there are no aperture click stops. This is not a lens for photographers who want all their lenses to function in the same way and cannot adjust to a different way of working. This is a design for the connoisseur with an appreciation for optics and their history.

Regarding the exposed aperture: while it may appear as unusual to some people, exposed apertures are not uncommon in lens history. Aperture placement depends on the lens design and does not have to sit in the nodal point plane, only in the light path. For example, when the lens is too small i.e. distances between elements too tight and distance to the image plane too short, the aperture can/must be placed in front.

Additional note: due to a manufacturing glitch, lens name was engraved “SUPER TPIRLET as opposed to “SUPER TRIPLET”. This does not affect lens performance.

There is no other independent maker of Leica M mount lenses that offers the same level of quality and creativity as MS Optical in the world today. The Perar is not just a lens, it is a celebration of the spirit of photography.